specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: Pitney Bowes
providerId: pitney-bowes
created: '2026-05-04'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-04, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-05'
reconciled: false
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Shipping
  - Logistics
notes: Pitney Bowes does not publish numeric rate limits for its Shipping APIs on its public
  developer site. Throttling and quota are governed by the merchant contract and downstream
  carrier acceptance. Standard 429 / 503 responses apply.
description: The Pitney Bowes Shipping APIs are gated to contracted merchants. The provider does
  not publish per-key rate limits; throughput is bounded by the merchant agreement, downstream
  carrier API acceptance (USPS / UPS / FedEx), and any anti-abuse rules Pitney Bowes applies at
  its gateway. Standard HTTP 429 / 503 responses apply on throttling.
sources:
  - https://www.pitneybowes.com/us/developer.html
  - https://docs.shippingapi.pitneybowes.com/api
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  serviceUnavailable: 503
limits:
  - name: Shipping APIs
    scope: merchant
    metric: varies
    limit: 'governed by merchant contract and downstream carrier acceptance; not publicly
      documented'
policies:
  - name: Carrier-Bound Throughput
    description: Effective throughput on rating / label / tracking endpoints is bounded by the
      downstream carrier (USPS / UPS / FedEx etc.) rather than by Pitney Bowes alone.
  - name: Backoff
    description: On 429 / 503, retry with exponential backoff and jitter; consider batching label
      requests where supported.
  - name: Idempotency
    description: Use idempotency keys on label-printing operations to avoid double-postage in retry
      scenarios.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com